openSUSE 11 officially premiered yesterday with more than 200 new features specific to openSUSE and a redesigned installer that makes openSUSE even easier to install (and if you've ever installed it before, it was pretty darn easy then).

If you're into bling (and who doesn't like a little bling), there is the 3-D desktop app Compiz Fusion and it is now default in openSUSE 11.0. It includes a number of Compiz plugins, as well as easier configuration with Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) and the more comprehensive CompizConfig Settings Manager that lets you do detailed  configuration of your Compiz setup.

Version 11 includes Gnome 2.22 and the KDE 4.0 desktop environments. KDE 4.0 doesn't include KDEPIM applications, so the openSUSE included beta versions of the KDEPIM suite (KMail, KOrganizer, Akregator, etc.) from the KDE 4.1 branch that is in development and slated to be released some time next month.

Firefox is of course the staple of Linux browsers but openSUSE 11 ships with the Firefox 3.0 beta 5 version. Updates will be available via the online update of course. Some other featured programs shipping with openSUSE are, Banshee 1.0, OpenOffice.org 2.4, NetworkManager 0.7, Wine 1.0 RC3, and Kepas for file sharing.

Ars technica calls this release a "very strong release" with many compelling improvements and "offers the best KDE 4 experience out there". They go on to say that it is no Ubuntu-killer, but we can expect to see a larger following for it in the coming months.

I'll be devoting part of my weekend to updating my openSUSE Linux box from v10 to v11. If you'd like to grab a download for your Linux box, it's available here.

Image Credit: openSUSE